''Doab'' () is a term used in
South Asia[ Quote: "Originally and chiefly in South Asia: (the name of) a strip or narrow tract of land between two rivers; spec. (with) the area between the rivers Ganges and Jumna in northern India."] for the tract
[ Quote: "confluence, land between two rivers, used in India of the tongue of land between the Ganges and Jumna, and of similar tracts in the Punjab, etc., lit. ‘two waters’ "][ of land lying between two confluent rivers. It is similar to an interfluve.][ Quote: " a tract of land between two rivers : interfluve"] In the ''Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary'', R. S. McGregor
Ronald Stuart McGregor, commonly R. S. McGregor (or Stuart McGregor) (24 October 1929 – 19 August 2013), was a philologist of the Hindi language. Best known as editor of the ''Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary'', a standard reference work p ...
defines it as from Persian ''do-āb'' (, literally "two odiesof water") "a region lying between and reaching to the confluence of two rivers.
The Doab
''The Doab'' designates the flat alluvial tract between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers extending from the Sivalik Hills to the two rivers' confluence at Prayagraj. It is also called as ''Ganges-Yamuna Doab'' or ''Ganga Doab''. The region has an area of about 23,360 square miles (60,500 square km); it is approximately in length and in width.[Ganges-Yamuna Doab]
Encyclopedia Britannica.
The British raj divided the ''Doab'' into three administrative districts, viz., Upper Doab (Meerut), Middle Doab (Agra) and Lower Doab (Prayagraj).[
Currently the following states and districts form part of ''The Doab'':][
]
Upper Doab
* Uttarakhand:
Dehradun
Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...
and Haridwar
* Uttar Pradesh:
Saharanpur
Saharanpur is a city and a municipal corporation in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is also the administrative headquarters of Saharanpur district.
Saharanpur city's name was given after the Saint Shah Haroon Chishti.
Saharanpur is declared as on ...
, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Bulandshahr
* Delhi
Central or Middle Doab
Etah, Kasganj, Aligarh, Agra, Hathras
Hathras is a historical city in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is also the headquarters of Hathras district, formed on 3 May 1997 by merging parts of Aligarh, Mathura and Agra. It is a part of the Aligarh Division.
The primary spoken language is a ...
, Firozabad, Mainpuri and Mathura is in the trans-Yamuna region of Braj.
Lower Doab
Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur
Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...
(Urban & Rural), Fatehpur, Kaushambi and Allahabad
Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...
.
The Punjab Doabs
Each of the tracts of land lying between the confluent rivers of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India has a distinct name, said to have been coined by Raja Todar Mal, a minister of the Mughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
emperor Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
. The names (except for "Indus Sagar") are a combination of the first letters, in the Persian alphabet, of the names of the rivers that bound the Doab. For example, "Chaj" () = ''Ch''anāb (, "Chenab") + ''Jehlam'' (, "Jhelum"). The names are from east to west.
Indus Sagar Doab
The Indus Sagar Doab lies between the Indus
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
and Jhelum
Jhelum ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a city on the east bank of the Jhelum River, which is located in the district of Jhelum in the north of Punjab province, Pakistan. It is the 44th largest city of Pakistan by population. Jhelum is known for p ...
rivers.
Chaj Doabs
The Chaj Doab lies between the Jhelum
Jhelum ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a city on the east bank of the Jhelum River, which is located in the district of Jhelum in the north of Punjab province, Pakistan. It is the 44th largest city of Pakistan by population. Jhelum is known for p ...
and the Chenab rivers.
Rachna Doabs
The Rachna Doab (considerable portion of the Rechna Doab is Majha[) lies between the Chenab and the ]Ravi Ravi may refer to:
People
* Ravi (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Ravi (composer) (1926–2012), Indian music director
* Ravi (Ivar Johansen) (born 1976), Norwegian musical artist
* Ravi (music director) (1926� ...
rivers.
Bari Doabs
The Bari Doab (considerable portion of the Bari Doab is Majha[Kakshi, S.R.; Pathak, Rashmi; Pathak, S.R.Bakshi R. (2007-01-01). Punjab Through the Ages. Sarup & Sons. . Retrieved 12 June 2010.]) lies between the Ravi Ravi may refer to:
People
* Ravi (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Ravi (composer) (1926–2012), Indian music director
* Ravi (Ivar Johansen) (born 1976), Norwegian musical artist
* Ravi (music director) (1926� ...
, Beas and Sutlej
The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the Ind ...
rivers.
Bist Doab
The Bist Doab (or Doaba) - between the Beas and the Sutlej
The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the Ind ...
rivers.
Other doabs
Raichur Doab
The Raichur Doab is the triangular region of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states which lies between the Krishna River and it's tributary the Tungabhadra River, named for the town of Raichur.
Khadir, bangar, barani, nali and bagar
Since North India and Pakistan are coursed by a multiplicity of Himalayan rivers that divide the plains into ''doabs'' (i.e. regions between two rivers), the Indo-Gangetic plains consist of alternating regions of river, ''khadir'' and ''bangar''. The regions of the ''doabs'' near the rivers consist of low-lying, floodplains, but usually, very fertile ''khadir'' and the higher-lying land away from the rivers consist of ''bangar'', less prone to flooding but also less fertile on average.[Damage to Yamuna Khadar, Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Responsible: NGT]
Khas Khabar
7 Dec 2017.
Khadir is also called nali or naili, specially in northern Haryana the fertile prairie tract between the Ghaggar river and the southern limits of the Saraswati channel depression in that gets flooded during the rains.["The imperial gazeteers of India, 1908"]
British Raj, page 288.]
Within bangar area, the barani is any low rain area where the rain-fed dry farming is practiced, which nowadays are dependent on the tubewells for irrigation.[ Bagar tract, an example of barani land, is the dry sandy tract of land on the border of Rajasthan state adjoining the states of Haryana and Punjab.][E. Walter Coward, 1980]
"Irrigation and Agricultural Development in Asia: Perspectives from the social sciences"
Cornell University press, . Nahri is any canal-irrigated land,[ for example, the ''Rangoi tract'' which is an area irrigated by the ''Rangoi channel/canal'' made for the purpose of carrying flood waters of Ghagghar river to dry areas.][1987]
"gazetteer of India: Hisar District"
, page 7.[1987]
"Gazeteers of Hisar district, 1987"
, Government of Haryana, page 162.]
Historically, villages in the ''doabs'' have been officially classified as ''khadir'', ''khadir-bangar'' (i.e. mixed) or ''bangar'' for many centuries, and different agricultural tax rates applied based on a tiered land-productivity scale.
See also
* Interamnia (disambiguation), Interamnia, an ancient Latin placename, meaning "between rivers"
Notes
References
*
{{Uttarakhand
Doabs of Punjab, Pakistan
Geography of Haryana
Geography of Madhya Pradesh
Geography of Punjab, India
Geography of Punjab, Pakistan
Geography of Rajasthan
Geography of Uttar Pradesh
Regions of Haryana
Regions of Madhya Pradesh
Regions of Punjab, India
Regions of Punjab, Pakistan
Regions of Rajasthan
Regions of Uttar Pradesh
Persian words and phrases
Natural regions